INTRODUCT1ON
SOME WESTERN PHILOSOPHERS hold the view that a
proposition is meaningful only when it is verifiable.
These thinkers are not so naive as to demand that the
lowest common denominator of experience verify the
proposition. They are willing, of course, to grant
that a scientific proposition difficult for the
layman to comprehend has been verified by telescopes,
microscopes, atom-smashers, and so on, in procedures
which the layman has neither the reining nor the
opportunity to duplicate. In a comparable sense, the
propositions of the spiritual life are verified by a
relatively small number of persons who have
exceptional faculty and opportunity. These
"privileged" few find it difficult, if not
impossible, to communicate their experiences to
others. This is the case with the states called
"mystical." Thus, William James, in his classic
Varieties of Religious Experience (Lectures XVI and
XVII, "Mysticism") informs us that the mystical state
is especially characterized by ineffability and
noetic quality.(1) But the Indian teachers long ago
evolved an indirect method of teaching these
exceptional states. They referred to them in terms
which the multitude could understand--in terms of
those ordinary things which those states are not.
Even more, they showed how to attain those states by
dissociation from what they are not.
The basic postulate of various Indian systems --
certainly of Buddhism -- is that something or some
entity is enlightened when free from defiling
conditions. Another postulate is that supernormal
experiences have a sensory character. In
illustration, the Western terminology "Extrasensory
Perception" (ESP), popularized by Dr. John H. Rhine
of Duke University, postulates five senses, while
Buddhist doctrines set forth six sense organs (or
------------------
1. There is also much to be said for the contrary
view, as expressed by Alfred Jules Ayer, Language,
Truth and Logic (New York: Dover Publications,
Inc., n.d.), p. 119: "The fact that he cannot
reveal what he `knows,' or even himself devise an
empirical test to validate his `knowledge, shows
that his state of mystical intuition is not a
genuinely cognitive state. So that in describing
his vision the mystic does not give us any
information about the external world; he merely
gives us indirect information about the condition
of his own mind."
"powers," indriyas)--the ordinary five and the mind
(manas) itself--and so there is no place within the
Buddhist system for the terminology "ESP" Thus, the
Buddhist author Asa^nga writes,
And it was said by the Bhagavat with respect to the
world of sentient beings, "Monks I see with the
purified divine eye, transcending the human [eye],
that sentient beings both passing away and being
born,...after the breaking up of the body, are born
among the gods in the good destiny, heaven world" In
that way, the Bhagavat, possessing the eye that sees
with direct perception, explained the impermanence of
the world of sentient beings.(2)
These and other postulates gave rise to questions
leading to various philosophical positions. For
example, is the enlightened entity always
enlightened; or sometimes potentially, sometimes
actually, enlightened? Is the enlightened entity a
complete buddha by virtue of dissociation from
defilement; and, if not, what else must be added? Are
subject and object reducible to a common substratum;
and, if so, what is the nature of this substratum?
Accordingly, a number of Buddhist schools arose and
in the course of the centuries engaged in a great
variety of philosophical disputes and--like Western
philosophy (for the most part) with religious or
theological postulates in the background, expressed
or implied.(3)
The present paper, while exhibiting certain
positions of both early and late Buddhism, barely
treats the differentiated philosophical positions but
does present a number of the most important
postulates of the Indian Buddhist schools. The
approach, leading to a commentary on the
Praj~naapaaramita-h.rdaya-suutra, favors certain
teachings of the Yogaacaara school. That Suutra
succinctly shows the connotation of "voidness"
(`suunyataa).
A number of modern writers have maintained that
the term "`suunyataa" does not really mean
"voidness," or "emptiness." Apparently motivated by a
kind regard for Buddhism, they wish to save it from
the bad repute of teaching "nihilism." The present
writer holds that, when early Buddhist authors used
this Sanskrit term, which was translated into both
Chinese and Tibetan as "emptiness," they intended
this basic meaning. Hence, it is proper to
---------------------------
2. Wayman, Analysis of the `Sraavakabhuumi
Manuscript, University of California Publications
in Classical Philosophy, Vol. 17 (Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University California Press, 1961),p.131.
3. A possible exception, not discussed in the present
article, is the doctrine of apoha of the Buddhist
logicians. Cf. Satkari Mookerjee, The Buddhist
Philosophy of Universal Flux (Calcutta: University
of Calcutta, 1935), pp. 119-120: "The word 'cow'
only engenders a conceptual image of the reality
`cow, ' but as this conceptual image has a
self-identity distinct from that of other
concepts, its distinctive character is felt and
distinction means negation of what it is not."
However, it occurs to me that this doctrine may
rest upon the Cittamaatra ("Mind-Only") school
position that the world is really mind (or mental
substance, citta), and hence that the yogin,
contemplating an image as a single area of
thought, with cessation of other thoughts, has the
object present in its true (because truly mental)
form.
translate the term into English as "emptiness,"
"voidness," or "vacuity." This is not to deny the
connotation of an unexpressed factor, hinted at by
negation of the expressible, just as a mystery is
suggested by a deserted village.
It remains to say that a celebrated source of the
"not this, not this" idea is the B.rhadaara.nyaka
Upani.sad (IV.v.15), which belongs to the period
immediately preceding the time of Gautama Buddha:
"That Self (AAtman) is not this, it is not that
[this] (neti, neti). It is unseizable, for it cannot
be seized; indestructible, for it cannot be
destroyed; unattached, for it does not attach itself;
is unbound, does not tremble, is not injured...."(4)
Strictly speaking, this passage is not setting forth
an indescribability of the AAtman.(5) Indeed,
Radhakrishnan's translation(6) reads, "That self is (to
be described as) not this, not this." In other words,
the AAtman is there described by negatives -- in
terms of what it is not.
THE MIDDLE PATH
The story of the Buddha's life shows that before
attainment of enlightenment (bodhi) he, as a prince,
was occupied with sense gratification and that later
he spent six fruitless years of austerities. Then he
returned to a moderate amount of food(7) prior
to his forty-nine days of meditation beneath the
bodhi tree.
In his first sermon, called "Suutra Setting into
Motion the Wheel of the Law," he spoke of two
extremes, one "whose application is wholly
concentrated in pleasure and lust" and the other
"whose application is in mortification of the self,"
and he spoke of a middle path avoiding those two
extremes, which tends to quiescence, supernormal
faculty,(8) illumination, and nirvaana. This middle
path he explained as the Eightfold Noble Path.(9)
Thus we see that the Buddhist path begins and
continues with a "not this, not this." Later
------------------------
4. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles A. Moore,
eds., A Source Book in Indian Philosophy
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957),
pp. 88-89.
5. As, for example, claimed in ibid., p. 77.
6. S. Radhakrishnan, The Principal Upani.sads (New
York: Harper & Brothers, 1953), p. 286.
7. In Buddhism, there are four kinds of food: morsel
food (coarse or subtle) , (sense) contact,
volition, and perception; cf. Sa.myutta-nikaaya,
Part II ("Nidaana-vagga,"), Paali Text, p. 98.
Since the future Buddha's austerities were of a
mental as well as physical nature, we may assume
that he returned to a moderate amount of all four
kinds of food.
8. In the Paali scriptures there are six supernormal
faculties -- magical powers, divine ear,
knowledge of another's mental make-up, divine
eye, remembrance of former existences, and
extinction of the fluxes; cf. Nyanatiloka,
Buddhist Dictionary (Colombo: Frewin & Co., Ltd.,
1950), pp. 2-3.
9. Dines Andersen, A Paali Reader (London: Luzac &
Co., 1935), pp. 66-67.
we shall see that this is also the case with the
Buddhist goal, whether it be nirvaana or Buddhahood.
Naagaarjuna writes: "Who expounded voidness,
dependent origination, and the middle path, with one
and the same meaning,..."(10) In the same work he says:
Whatever the origination in dependence on entities
That is voidness;
And that origination occurs in dependence
Because it has no "own origination" (svabhaava).(11)
Presumably applicable is the discourse to
Kaatyaayana(12) where the twelve-membered formula of
dependent origination is set forth as the middle
doctrine that avoids (the doctrines) "Everything
exists" and "Everything exists not." Naagaarjuna
refers to this discourse in his Madhyamaka-kaarikaas
(XV. 7).
The earliest Yogaacaara standpoint is set forth
in the Madhyaanta-vibha^nga, a work which Asa^nga is
supposed to have received from the future Buddha,
Maitreya, in the Tu.sita Heaven. The first two verses
of the first chapter read:
There is the imagination of unreality (abhuutaparikalpa);
In it there is no duality [of subject and object].
There is voidness in it;
And it is in that [voidness].
Therefore everything is explained as
Neither [exclusively] void nor [exclusively] non-void;
By reason of the reality (sattva) [of the imagination
of unreality], the non-reality [of duality], and
the reality [mutually of voidness and the imagination
of unreality],
That is the middle path.(13)
The Madhyaanta-vibha^nga further teaches that the
"imagination of unreality" constructs dependent
origination as well as the duality of subject and
object and teaches that liberation is achieved by
eliminating this duality. According to the
commentary, "That is the middle path" means avoiding
the extremes of only voidness or only non-voidness.
It is plain that the Yogaacaara disagrees with
the previously delineated
-----------------------
10. E. H. Johnston and A. Kunst, "Vigrahavyaavartanii
of Naagaarjuna," Melanges chinois et bouddhiques,
IX (1948-1951), 151:
ya.h `suunyataa^m pratiityasamutpaada^m /
madhyamaa^m pratipada^m ca /
ekaartha^m nijagaada ...
11. Ibid., verse 22.
12. Sa^myutta-nikaaya, Part II ("Nidaana-Vagga") ,
Paali Text, p. 17.
13. Susumu Yamaguchi, ed. and trans., Sthiramati.
Madhyaantavibhaaga.tiikaa (Nagoya: Librarie
Hajinkaku, 1934) , Tome I, pp. 10, 15. The
expressions within brackets are based upon the
commentary.
Maadhyamika stand of Naagaarjuna as regards the
theoretical formulation of the path. Furthermore, in
philosophical contrast with the Maadyamika position,
this Yogaacaara treatise does not hold that dependent
origination has the same meaning as voidness or as
the middle path. The latter school maintains two
principles throughout: [1] voidness, on the absolute
side, and [2] imagination of unreality on the
phenomenal side. Naagaarjuna apparently holds that
the two (although he may use different terminology)
are merely aspects of the same thing.
A similar problem arises in `Sa^mkara's
Vedaantism: Is the power of illusion (maayaa)
distinct from Brahman?(11)
The foregoing raises the question, "Does that
theoretical difference between the two schools affect
the practical `treading' of the path in the form of
the Eightfold Noble Path of early Buddhism or in the
form of the six perfections of Mahaayaana Buddhism?"
The answer appears to be that there is no necessary
practical difference. Naagaarjuna says, "Everything
is valid for the one for whom voidness is valid."(15)
Voidness here is the great principle of efficiency.
Likewise, in the Madhyaanta-vibha^nga (I. 17-19), the
persevering bodhisattva is voidness. However, it
cannot be denied that Naagaarjuna is difficult to
understand, and his primary stress on "voidness" may
well have contributed to a one-sided appreciation of
this doctrine. The Yogaacaara's equal emphasis on the
"void" and the "non-void" seems more clearly to
justify in a theoretical way all six perfections of
the bodhisattva, and to discourage the one-sided
emphasis on the sixth perfection, the insight that
"sees" the void. To bring our some of the
implications, we should touch briefly upon the buddha
bodies.
A buddha is said to have the three bodies called
the Dharma Body (dharmakaaya) and the two kinds of
Formal Body (ruupakaaya), the Body of Enjoyment
(sambhogakaaya) and the Body of Transformation
(nirmaanakaaya). In the bodhisattva section of his
Lam rim chen mo, Tsong-kha-pa (1357-1419),
founder of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism,
quotes many sources to show the necessity for both
insight (praj~naa) and the means (upaaya); and in his
reform of the Buddhist Tantras, his S^ags rim chen
mo, he shows their relation to the Buddha bodies with
these words:
Regarding that, profound comprehending insight
accomplishes the Dharma Body, and broad means the
Formal Body; and insight unfurnished with the means
or the means unfurnished with insight cannot
accomplish either of the two bodies. Therefore one
-----------------------
14. If we regard the two ultimate entities as
distinct, the cardinal idea is that at the
"limit" of the meditative process there are two
entities, even if inseparable (with the meditator
himself excluded).
15. Madhyamaka-kaarikaa (XXIV, 14a-b) : sarvam ca
yujyate tasya `suunyataa yasya yujyate /.
must not be unfurnished with either the means or
insight: this is the general tenet of the
Mahaayaanist.(16)
In the bodhisattva teachings, the "means" indicates
the first five perfections, namely, giving, morality,
forebearance, striving, and meditation. In
Tsong-kha-pa's S^nags rim chen mo, the "means" is
shown to indicate also the ma.n.dala (magic circle
containing the symbolic palace) in which initiation
takes place. In any case, the "means" constitutes the
best of the phenomenal aspects.
There is little doubt that there was and is more
enthusiasm in some quarters for the doctrine
"perfection of insight", with emphasis on voidness,
than for the doctrine "the means attended with
insight, " with equal emphasis on practice and
voidness. Comparable to this in Hindu terminology
would be a greater leaning to knowledge (j~naana)
than to works (karma). Hence, we find `Saantideva
quoting the Sarvadharmavaipulya-sa^mgraha-suutra as
follows:(17)
Maitreya, this attainment of six perfections of the
bodhisattvas is for complete illumination. Regarding
that, those men of delusion will say this: "A
bodhisattva should train himself only in the
perfection of insight. What has he to do with the
remaining perfections?" They think that any other
perfection should be disparaged. Regarding that, what
do you think, Invincible One; did the King of
Kaa`si(18) have poor insight, who save his own flesh
to the hawk for the sake of the pigeon?" Maitreya
replied, "O Bhagavat, he did not!" The Bhagavat
spoke, "Maitreya, when I, engaged in the bodhisattva
practice, accumulated the roots of merit associated
with the six perfections, was there any injury [to
me] by those roots of merit?" Maitreya replied, "O
Bhagavat, there was not!" The Bhagavat spoke, "You
also,(19) Invincible One, arrived at the perfections
of giving, morality, forbearance, striving,
meditation, and insight in sixty aeons for each
perfection. Regarding that, those men of delusion
will say this: "There
---------------------------
16. S^nags rim chen mo, Peking ed., A Catalogue of
the Tohoku University Collection of Tibetan Works
on Buddhism (Sendai: The Seminary of Indology,
Tohoku University, 1953), No. 5281. 16a-5: / de
la zab mo rtogs pa.hi `ses rab kyis chos kyi sku
da^n / rgya che ba.hi thabs kyis gzugs kyi sku
sgrub pa da^n / thabs da^n bral ba.hi `ses rab
da^n `ses rab da^n bral ba.hi thabs kyis sku
g~nis sgrub par mi nus pas thabs da^n `ses rab ya
ma bral ba dgos so zes pa .hdi ni theg pa chen po
pa spyi.hi grub pa.hi mtha.h .ho/.
17. `Siksaasamuccaya, C. Bendall, ed.,
Bibliographie-Buddhica, Vol. I (St. Petersburg,
1902) (photomechanic reprint, `s-Gravenhage,
1957), 97.6, ff. The first "regarding that" of my
translation renders "tat," correcting the text's
"ta^m."
18. He is better known as King `Sibi. For the
Buddhist version of the story, written in the
form of a Jaataka, see Etienne Lamotte, Le Traite
de la grande vertu de sagesse (Louvain: Bureaux
du Museon, 1944),Vol. I, pp. 255-256. As the
present writer has discussed the Hindu version,
"Studies in Yama and Maara, " Indo-Iranian
Journal, III (1959) , 115-116, it becomes
especially clear why that king did not have poor
insight: through his perfection of giving he
defeated Death itself.
19. The meaning "also" does not appear to be
recognized for the Sanskrit "taavat," and the
translation here is due to the Tibetan "kya^n."
The implication is that Maitreya went through the
same process as Gautama Buddha. This is the usual
meaning of the epithet of the Buddha,
"tathaagata," "Who has arrived the same way."
is enlightenment by a single method, namely, by the
method of voidness." They will be impure of conduct.
The composers of the Mahaayaana literature could
well have quoted to the defenders of what are now
called the Pali scriptures ("original" Buddhism):
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Also there
arose a number of Mahaayaana scriptures called
"Embryo of the Tathaagata" Suutras, which teach that
every sentient being has hidden within him the
"Embryo of the Tathaagata," or the Dharma Body.(20)
These particular Suutras became quite influential in
China. Consistent with the viewpoint of the
Mahaayaana Suutra quoted above, the reason that the
embryo is generally "hidden" is that the multitudes
are unregenerate in the Buddhist sense: they refuse
to adopt the best phenomenal aspects.
In any case, the "middle path," which really led
nowhere, was difficult both to tread and to discuss.
In the course of time, it was mentioned less and less
-- was it understood more and more? -- and Mahaayaana
Buddhism wrote extensively about the six perfections
and about the means and insight.
THE THREE GATEWAYS TO LIBERATION
In Buddhist phraseology, there are three gateways
to liberation (vimok.samukha) : the undirected
(apranihita), the voidness (`suunyataa), and the
signless (aanimitta) gateways. It will be noted that
all three names are negations. There are different
explanations of this triad in the various Buddhist
schools. Here the Yogaacaara explanation is followed
as a preparation for the interpretation of the
Praj~naapaaramitaa-h.rdaya-suutra.
The Mahaayaanasuutraala^mkaara (by author or
authors unknown) is authoritative in the Yogaacaara
school as well as in Tibetan Buddhism generally. It
sets forth(21) that the four aphorisms of the
Buddhist doctrine are taught by way of the meditative
sessions(22) (upani.sad state) of those three
concentrations (samaadhis). That is to say, the
aphorisms "All the forces (sa^mskaaras) are
impermanent" and "All the forces are suffering
(du.hkha)" are taught
---------------------
20. There is no essential difference between the
teaching that every sentient being has the Dharma
Body and Tsong-kha-pa's teaching that insight,
when attended with the means, accomplishes the
Dharma Body. The crux is the meaning of "having"
something. Do the living beings "have" life?
21. Text, pp. 148-149.
22. Among the various explanations of the word
"upani.sad," the well-known one by Radhakrishnan
(The Principal Upani.sads, p. 19), to wit: the
pupils' "sitting down near" the teacher to learn
from him the secret doctrine, may not be correct
for the meaning of the word in the titles of
certain celebrated and ancient Indian
philosophical texts. Nevertheless, the
interpretation "sitting near the teacher" --
understood metaphorically for the mental level --
seems beautifully relevant to this much later
Buddhist context of meditation. In translating
upani.sadbhaava by "meditative session," with
adoption of the word "session," upon recalling a
line of Shakespeare's, that metaphorical
interpretation is unfortunately curtailed.
through the meditative session of the "undirected"
concentration; "All the natures (dharmas) are
selfless (anaatma)," through that of the "voidness"
(concentration) ; "Nirvaa.na is calm (`saanta), "
through that of the "signless" concentration.
Asa^nga gives an explanation of the three
gateways in his `Sraavakabhuumi. Here he states that
they are based on the pair, the conditioned and the
unconditioned, and he follows with philosophical
remarks:
Among those, the conditioned is the five personality
aggregates (skandhas) connected with the three
realms. Furthermore, the unconditioned is nirvaana.
This pair -- the conditioned and the unconditioned
-- is called "real" (sat). Furthermore, this [which]
is called "self," "sentient being," "living being,"
or "creature" -- this is "unreal" (asat).(23)
The undirected gateway amounts to an aversion toward
the conditioned by reason of seeing the faults and
disadvantages therein. The signless gateway is
directed toward nirvaana, with a view of calm,
excellence, and exit. The voidness gateway is the
knowing and seeing of unreality to the same extent as
there is unreality.
Asa^nga's preference for that metaphysical
position is reasonably related to his strong
moralistic attitudes.(24) In agreement with ancient
Buddhism, he regards the noble person (aarya) as
better than the vulgar person (p.rthagjana). But,
considered as "selves," they are unreal. How save the
situation? Their nobility and vulgarity are real: the
conditioned is real. In his commentary on the
Paramaartha-gaathaa, (25) he makes no distinction
between these two kinds of persons as regards the
"perfect self" (parini.spanna-aatman) : the
unconditioned is also real.
It is possible that Asanga has in mind the
initial verses of the Madhyaantavibhanga, as quoted
in the preceding section. He may even have written
that work. "Reality," "non-reality," and [again]
"reality" of the second stanza appear consistent with
the three gateways to liberation explained by
Asa^nga. That is to say, the first gateway,
"undirected," is based on the conditioned, which
Asa^nga explains as "real." The second, "voidness,"
is based on unreality [seeing it as unreality]. The
third, "signless," is based on the unconditioned,
which, again, is real.(26)
---------------------------------
23. The discussion in Chinese translation occurs in
Taisho, Vol. 30, 436b-25, f. The Buddhist
Sanskrit now translated is from the Bihar
Society's photographic manuscript of the
`Sraavakabhuumi, and does not happen to be
included in the published work referred to in
note 2, above: / tatra sa^msk.rta^m
traidhaatuka-pratisa^myuktaa.h pa~ncaskandh(aa.h) /
asa^msk.rta^m puna.h nirvaa.na^m / idam ubhaya^m
/ yac ca sa^msk.rta^m yac caasa^msk.rta^m ity
ucyate / sat punar idam ucyate / aatmaa vaa
sat(t) vo vaa jiivo vaa jantur vaa idam asat /.
24. For example, two commentaries on the "morality
chapter" of his Bodhisattvabhuumi were translated
into Tibetan. Asa^nga certainly takes all pains
to write on the subject of morality in an
attractive manner.
26. Cf. the ten ox-herding pictures in Daisetz
Teitaro Suzuki, Essarys in Zen Buddhism.
25. As edited and translated in the work cited in
note 2, above. Cf. pp. 166-167.
Since Asa^nga is occupied principally with
meditation practice in his `Sraavakabhuumi, he does
not launch into subtle philosophical discussions in
that work. If we assume a consistency with the
Madhyaanta-vibha^nga position, we must ourselves infer
that the reality of the conditioned is the
"imagination of unreality" and that the reality of
the unconditioned is "voidness." Certainly this
position is not philosophical idealism. As Moore
writes,(27) "Accordingly, whatever esse is percipi
may mean, it does at least assert that whatever is,
is experienced." But the reality of the conditioned
and the unconditioned does not require experience or
perception. Indeed, this theory holds that whatever
is perceived through the duality of subject and
object is unreal. Such viewpoints in Mahaayaana
Buddhism are more properly to be discussed with the
terminology of Indian philosophy than with the names
of modern Western philosophical schools, realism,
idealism, etc. Ordinarily, Mahaayaana Buddhism would
say that the statement "Duality is unreal" is made
from the standpoint of "absolute truth"
(paramaartha-satya).
NIRVAA.NA
No more than the Upani.sadic AAtman is nirvaa.na
to be called "indescribable." There are certainly
many statements about nirvaana in Buddhist works, as
can be seen by the diversity of views in an article
by Obermiller.(28)
The Buddhist works set forth two basic kinds of
nirvaana -- nirvaa.na with a remainder, and nirvaana
without a remainder. The first kind is the nirvaa.na
with a remainder of the five personality aggregates
in a purified condition. The second kind is the
nirvaa.na without a remainder of those personality
aggregates. According to the Maadhyamika viewpoint,
as set forth by the Tibetan author Tsong-kha-pa, and
as translated in Obermiller's article,(29) we must
interpret these two nirvaa.nas differently, according
to whether they concern attainment through the
Hiinayaana, i.e., by the arhat, or attainment through
the Mahaayaana, i.e., by the buddhas and
bodhisattvas. In the case of the arhat, the first
kind means that the five personality aggregates are
freed from defiling influences, but the life force
continues. When that force is cut off, the arhat has
the second kind of nirvaa.na -- he abandons the
personality aggregates in their gross form and
assumes existence in a spiritual body called
----------------------------
First Series (London: Rider & Company, 1958
impression), between pp. 192 and 193. But the
meaning may differ.
27. G. E. Moore, Philosophical Studies (Paterson:
Littlefield, Adams & Company, 1959), p.7.
28. E. Obermiller, "Nirvaa.na according to the
Tibetan Tradition, " The Indian Historical
Quarterly, X (1934), 211-257.
29. Ibid., pp. 220-221.
"body made of mind" (manomaya-kaaya) . In the
Mahaayaana sense, the nirvaa.na with a remainder is
the two Formal Bodies of the Buddha, and the
nirvaa.na without a remainder is the dharma-kaaya.
The Mahaayaana nirvaa.na is often called "nirvaa.na
without fixed abode" (aprati.s.thita-nirvaa.na)
because it is limited neither to the quiescent
nirvaa.na, i.e., the one without a remainder, nor to
sa^msaara, i.e., the one with a remainder. Sa^msaara
is the phenomenal world.
In his commentary on the Paramaartha-gaathaa,
Asa^nga uses the word "release" (mok.sa) in place of
"nirvaa.na" as applied to the two kinds (of
nirvaa.na). According to him, the "release" is of the
mind. The first release is from corruptions
(kle`sa-mok.sa), and the second release is from
materials (vastu-mok.sa). In further explanation, the
first kind of release involves elimination of the
"stain of corruption" (kle`sa-sa^mkle`sa); the second
kind, elimination of the "stain of action (karma)"
and of the "stain of birth (janma)." Elsewhere,(30)
Asa^nga lists four corruptions that corrupt the mind:
unwisdom (avidyaa), self-viewpoint, "I-am" pride, and
mark of craving. This application of nirvaa.na to the
mind is consistent with the previous information that
the two nirvaa.nas in the Hiinayaana sense imply the
potential and actual separation of a "body made of
mind."
The second kind of release appears to reproduce
the state beings have at the outset of evolution,
when they are made of mind and have such other
attributes as being self-luminous, etc.(31)
Tsong-kha-pa(32) explains that, while those beings
have bodies approximating the illusory body
(maayaadeha) (i.e., the sa^mbhogakaaya of a buddha),
they do not know the illusory concentration
(maayopama-samaadhi) (i.e., in which the natures are
seen as illusion), and so, through a series of
transformations, they gradually lose their original
good qualities (of the body made of mind) and acquire
the ordinary bodies of men, as we now know them.
Hence, that particular concentration is essential for
becoming a complete buddha, but it is not required
for attaining the Hiinayaana nirvaa.na. Perhaps this
is the reason that Naagaajuna goes to the trouble of
rejecting the latter nirvaa.na in Chapter XXV of his
Madhyamakakaarikaa.(33)
When Naagaarjuna states in verse 19 of the same
chapter that there is no
--------------------------
30. Vidhushekhara Bhattacharya, The Yogaacaarabhuumi
of AAcaarya Asa^nga, Part I (Calcutta: University
of Calcutta, 1957), p. 11, lines 6--7.
31. For example, J. J. Jones, trans., The Mahaavastu
(London: Luzac & Company, 1949), Vol. I, p. 285.
32. Lhasa edition of collected works, Vol. Cha, the
Dpal gsa^n ba .hdus pa.hi gnad kyi don gsal ba,
folio 20b, A Catalogue of Tohoku University
Collection of Tibetan Works on Buddhism (Sendai:
The Seminary of Indology, Tohoku University,
1953), No. 5290.
33. This chapter, together with Candrakiirti's
commentary, was translated in Th. Stcherbatsky,
The Conception of Buddhist Nirvaa.na (Leningrad:
The Academy of Sciences of the
distinction between nirvaana and sa^msaara, we again
see the essential difference between the Maadhyamika
and the Yogaacaara by recalling Asa^nga's positive
contrast of the unconditioned and the conditioned,
and observing that the Maadhyamika makes such
contrasts only with negative statements. As the
writer understands the Yogaacaara type of Mahaayaana,
it adds the bodhisattva path for the goal of abiding
in both the conditioned with great compassion and the
unconditioned with illumination. The Maadhyamika
nirvaa.na is stated in verse 3 of that chapter
(Stcherbatsky's translation):
What neither is released, nor is it ever reached,
What neither is annihilation, nor is it eternality,
What never disappears, nor has it been created,
This is Nirvaa.na (World's Unity, the Unexpressible).
The Hiinayaana nirvaa.na is described by what has
been eliminated -- corruption and the life force. It
can be given a positive explanation in terms of a
body made of mind, but this is incomprehensible in
ordinary ways of thinking, which accept as senses
only the five outer senses, not recognizing the
sensory powers of the mind itself. The Mahaayaana
nirvaa.na is described by the limitations avoided, It
can also be given a positive explanation in terms of
the bodies of the Buddha. These are a matter of
religious belief. They are also incomprehensible in
ordinary ways of thinking.
AN INTERPRETATION OF THE
PRAJ~NAAPAARAMITAA-HRDAYA-SUUTRA
Various statements of the foregoing sections can
be illustrated by, as well as help clarify, a
celebrated and brief Buddhist Suutra, undoubtedly
read and pronounced more often in the West as well as
in the Orient than any other Praj~naapaaramitaa
Suutra. The shorter text has been translated many
times. My first translation attempt(34) was from the
Sanskrit text edited by Muller and Nanjio.(35) It
took into account certain commentaries on the longer
text in the Tibetan Tanjur. One of the
commentaries(36) gave a (to me) convincing
explanation of the concluding mantras (incantations)
by reference to preced-
---------------------------------
U.S.S.R., 1927). His translation of the chapter
is incorporated in Radhakrishnan and Moore, eds.,
A Source Book in Indian Philosophy, pp. 342-345.
34. In Berkeley Bussei, 1957 (a publication of the
Buddhist Churches of America Study Center,
Berkeley, California).
35. F. Max Muller and Bunyiu Nanjio, eds., "The
Ancient Palm Leaves..." in Anecdota Oxoniensia,
Aryan Series, Vol. III (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1884), pp. 48-50.
36. Numbered 3820 in the Tohoku Kanjur-Tanjur
Catalog, the Bhagavatiipraj~naapaarami-
taah.rdaya.tiikaarthapradiipa-naama by Phyag na
rdo rje (Vajrapaa.ni).
ing parts of the Suutra. However, those commentaries
are apparently by authors of Maadhyamika persuasion,
and my present interpretation is based principally on
Yogaacaara materials.(37) Asa^nga's explanation of
the three gateways apparently provides the clue. In
what follows, the indented passages constitute my
translation of the Praj~naapaaramitaa-h.rdaya-suutra
on the basis of the text edited by Muller and Nanjio,
with a difference of reorganization and relocation of
the statements concerning the mantras. In the
original text, these statements occur at the very end
of the Suutra. In my presentation, which takes
account of the above-mentioned commentary, they are
reorganized into four sentences which are then
relocated to follow directly the four numbered
remarks by Avalokite`svara, to which they
respectively refer. The non-in-dented material is my
commentary.
The noble Avalokite`svara, while engaged in the
performance of the profound perfection of
insight, observed that the personality aggregates
are five and perceived chat they are void of "own
origination."
Concerning that initial insight, Avalokite`svara
said:
(1) "Here, O `Saariputra, form is voidness, and
voidness is indeed form. Voidness is not
different from form; form is not different from
voidness. What is form, that is voidness; what is
voidness, that is form. The same is the case with
[the other personality aggregates called]
feelings, ideas, motivations, and perceptions."
Therefore, one should know the great mantra of
the perfection of insight, the mantra of great
wisdom, as follows: Going! Going! (gate
gate).(38)
`Saariputra was one of the two chief disciples of the
Buddha and was the foremost disciple in insight
(Paali, pa~n~na) . He is represented as being
instructed in the perfection of insight by
Avalokite`svara, the bodhisattva of compassion. Here
the meditator is in the undirected gateway or
concentration because he is successively examining
the five personality aggregates --- the conditioned
-- in a manner producing detachment without regret
from them, which is the implication of the title
"undirected." The same word (apra.nihita) could also
---------------------------
37. The interpretations of Suzuki and Conze are
worthy of consideration: Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki,
Essays in Zen Buddhism, Third Series (London:
Luzac & Company, 1934), pp. 189- 206: Edward
Conze, "The Heart Sutra Explained," The Middle
Way issues of Nov., 1955, pp. 104-107, 119; Feb.,
1956, pp. 147-153; May, 1956, pp. 20-24; and
August, 1956, pp. 76-81. See Edward Conze,
Buddhist Wisdom Books, containing the Diamond
Sutra and the Heart Sutra, translated and
explained (London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd.,
1958).
38. The word "gate" is the vocative of "gati." The
latter is grammatically "state or process" (-ti)
of what is indicated by the verb root gam- (to
go) . The expression "the going renders the
literal significance of "gati" but not the usual
usages of this Sanskrit word. However, the
literal significance is consistent with the
central idea of the Praj~naa-paaramitaa
scriptures, in which "insight" (praj~naa)
envisages the world as a great gerundive -- doing
without a doer, going without a goer. But, while
"insight" envisages no goer, the latter is
assured by the "means" (upaaya).
be translated in the present context "not entrusted
(to) ." Every one of the statements "Form is
voidness," etc., is an identification "A is B." That
is to say, the meditator is exercising the naming
faculty. But he names in a way that defeats the usual
worldly namings. The identification with voidness is
explained in the Paali scripture Sa^myutta-nikaaya:
"Because, AAnanda, it is void of self or of what
belongs to self, therefore it is said, "The world is
void.'"(39) The spirit of this employment of insight
on an intellectual level may be familiar to the
reader through the writings of the Stoic philosopher
Epictetus. Thus he writes in his Discourses
(IV.i.11): "Body, then, is not our own, but subject
to everything stronger than itself." And he writes in
the Enchiridion (XI): "Never say of anything, `I